China’s War on Pollution Fuels State Takeover of Heavy Industry

Resurgent state sector risks worsening trade tension with U.S. State controls 67% of steel capacity, 80% of coal: analyst President Xi Jinping’s big push to curb pollution and excess capacity in steel and other industries is also consolidating his government’s control over them. Just last year, the state’s share of steel capacity increased to 67 percent from 60 percent while aluminum smelting saw about an equal increase, J Capital Research Ltd. estimates. In coal, which began consolidating years earlier, the government now controls 80 percent of capacity compared with about 45 percent in 2010, according to the Hong Kong-based firm. Xi’s campaign has boosted corporate profits, ended years of deflation, and stabilized debt growth to help underpin the first full-year economic acceleration last year since 2010. But his aim for a “bigger, better and stronger” state role also means those bloated companies risk stifling private ones, as the Communist […]